Brush belt

ABSTRACT

A brush belt has a belt body and at least one bristle anchored in the belt body. The bristle has at least one plastic sheath. The bristle is U-shaped with a crosspiece as the U base and two treatment legs as U shanks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a brush belt having a belt body and at least one bristle anchored in the belt body, which bristle has at least one plastic sheath.

2. The Prior Art

Such a brush belt is described in Swiss Patent No. CH 412 793. Such brush belts, having a plastic bristle anchored in the belt body using steel staples, are known from practice. Consequently, each bristle has a more or less V-shaped form at the top of the belt body. This has the result that the brush belt can become contaminated relatively quickly when cleaning surfaces, because loosened dirt particles or foreign bodies become lodged between the bristles, which project in a V shape from the belt body. Furthermore, the production of the belt body is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a brush belt of the type described above, in which the production is simplified and at the same time, contaminations are reliably avoided.

This object is accomplished by a brush belt having at least one bristle anchored in the belt body in a U-shaped configuration. Each bristle has a crosspiece as the U base and two treatment legs as U shanks. The bristle is, as usual, a thick, stiff (artificial) hair that has at least one plastic sheath. Preferably it is produced entirely from plastic. However, the bristle can also be equipped with a core of steel, for example, and the necessary plastic sheath. In this way, even sensitive surfaces can be cleaned and worked with the brush belt implemented in this manner.

The brush belt is a tool for cleaning or smoothing, using the aforementioned bristles, which are anchored on or in a solid base, i.e., the belt body in the present case. In this connection, the brush belt can fundamentally assume any planar form. It is also possible to connect several brush belts with one another along their lengthwise edge sides. In any case, the brush belt forms, or the multiple brush belts form a brush body having practically any desired planar configuration, which body can be used for very different purposes, for example as a coating for cleaning tools in pipes. Use in connection with a rotating brush tool is also possible.

The treatment legs preferably pass through passage openings in the belt body with bias against the openings, in order to anchor them. In this connection, the bristles are preferably configured to be the same, but could also have different lengths or thicknesses. In order to produce the bias, the treatment legs each enclose an angle that essentially deviates from the vertical with the related crosspiece, in the uninstalled state. That means that the bristles, i.e. their treatment legs, are inclined either slightly outward or slightly inward in comparison with an essentially vertical progression, after their production process. It is also possible that one treatment leg of the bristles is inclined outward, and the other treatment leg of the bristles is inclined inward. In any case, the required bias is produced by this deviation from the vertical, and this ensures that the bristles inserted into the belt body are held in the belt body so as not to come loose.

Usually, the treatment legs enclose a slightly greater angle than 90° with the crosspiece, in other words they are connected with the crosspiece at an obtuse angle in the course of the production process. In order to introduce each bristle into the related passage openings in the belt body, the treatment legs are forced slightly inward into their almost vertical position. As soon as the treatment legs have passed through the passage openings and are anchored in the belt body, they spring open slightly and are thereby held in the belt body so as not to come loose.

Usually, two passage openings for the two treatment legs correspond to each bristle. In the installed state of the bristles, the two passage openings are generally connected with one another on a back of the belt body by the crosspiece of the bristle. Then the treatment legs also project a predetermined dimension relative to a top of the belt body. Depending on the application, this dimension can lie in the millimeter or centimeter range.

Because the treatment legs stand up almost vertically on the surface of the belt body in their anchored state, in contrast to the state of the art, there is no risk that dirt particles, foreign bodies, etc., that are loosened from a surface using the brush belt will remain hanging between the bristles and essentially plug up the interstices. In order to further increase this advantage, the two treatment legs of the bristle are each disposed at a distance relative to one another that is adapted to the dirt particles, foreign objects, etc., that are to be loosened from a surface. This means that the distance between the two treatment legs will be variably adjusted to the application of the brush belt and the size of the loosened dirt particles or foreign bodies, during the production process of the U-shaped bristles made of plastic. The same also holds true, of course, for the arrangement of the passage openings in the belt body.

The belt body is preferably produced from a woven textile in which the passage openings are made in a uniform distribution. This is because such a woven textile does not tend to splice open and makes a solid surface, closed in the finished state, available even when passage openings have been made in it. Furthermore, the passage openings can easily be made in such a woven textile, with corresponding needle tools, particularly in a variable distribution.

The passage openings are preferably disposed in rows that run crosswise to the longitudinal direction of the belt. Furthermore, the passage openings are preferably disposed in the rows in question at intervals that are essentially the same, relative to one another. In this way, the U-shaped bristles can be introduced into practically any desired pair of the passage openings in the row in question. Of course, it is also possible for the U-shaped bristles to be introduced into the belt body over more than one row. For reasons of simple production, however, it is recommended to insert the U-shaped bristles essentially next to one another, one by one, into the rows that run crosswise to the belt direction, and the passage openings located there, with the bias described.

The brush belt according to the invention can advantageously be used in combination with a rotating brush tool, as is described in detail in German Patent No. DE 92 02 250 U1, for example, but is not restricted to this. Furthermore, of course, any other purposes of use are also included, for example as a mantling for a scraper or a comparable pipe-cleaning tool, which can find use in the foods industry, for example. Of course, planar configurations of the brush belt are also possible for satisfying other purposes, for example circular in connection with a disk that is driven in rotation, in order to clean surfaces. For reasons of simple production, however, a brush belt has regularly proven itself to be particularly advantageous, because the U-shaped bristles can be introduced into its longitudinally extended belt body within the course of a continuous process, one by one, using a press-in punch.

In this connection, production is particularly simple, because no additional steel staples or supplementary anchoring methods are required. Instead, the U-shaped bristles made of plastic have the required bias right from the start, so that after they pass through the passage openings in the belt body, they are automatically held in them so as not to come loose. In this connection, the bristles, as a whole, can be produced as U-shaped injection-molded parts. However, it is also possible to configure them from work pieces cut to length from a single strand of plastic and then bent. Of course, the methods of procedure described can also be combined, if necessary. Likewise, other production methods are possible, and are covered by the invention. For example, a U-shaped steel staple can be mantled with plastic and driven into the belt body accordingly.

It is always guaranteed that the treatment legs, which stand more or less vertically on the top of the belt body, produce a uniform bristle pattern with treatment legs that are essentially at equal distances from one another. As a result, interstices of practically equal size are available between the treatment legs, in which the loosened dirt particles or foreign bodies find hardly any hold. This is all the more true if the treatment legs are adapted to the size of the particles or foreign bodies in question, in terms of the distance between them. All of this is possible while assuring gentle surface treatment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed as an illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention.

In the drawings, wherein similar reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 shows a front view of one embodiment of the brush belt according to the invention; and

FIG. 2 shows a rear view of the brush belt according to FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the figures show a brush belt 1, which has several bristles 2, which are anchored in a belt body 3. Bristles 2 are produced completely from plastic such as polyamide (PA), acryl nitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), etc. Aside from the aforementioned thermoplastics, bristles 2 made of duroplastics are fundamentally also possible.

Bristles 2 are each configured in U shape, with a crosspiece 2 a as the U base and two treatment legs 2 b as the U shanks, in each instance. To produce the bristles 2, a standard injection-molding method can be used, which produces the bristles 2 in their form as shown right from the start. Then it is possible to place a supply of U-shaped bristles 2 into a magazine and to introduce them into belt body 3 using a punch.

Alternatively to this, however, bristles 2 can also be produced from a single strand of plastic that is cut to length. Subsequent to this, the individual strand pieces are brought into the U-shaped form by plastic deformation at related bending points 5. The plastic deformation at bending points 5 can be achieved by applying heat such as from an ultrasound source or a laser.

Treatment legs 2 b pass through related passage openings 4 in belt body 3 with bias. This is made clear by the enlarged representation of a bristle 2 in FIG. 1. Bristles 2 are configured to be the same, and treatment legs 2 b each enclose an obtuse angle with crosspiece 2 a in the uninstalled state. This means that this angle between each treatment leg 2 b and crosspiece 2 a deviates from the perpendicular shown with a dot-dash line, and produces the required bias.

To introduce bristles 2 into belt body 3, it is necessary to bring treatment legs 2 b more or less into their perpendicular position, as shown with the dot-dash line, and to introduce them into passage openings 4 in belt body 3. As soon as bristles 2 have reached their installed position, they spring open slightly and thereby ensure, with the bias that has been achieved thereby, that bristles 2 are held in belt body 3 so as not to come loose. Of course, it is also possible to work with an acute angle α here, i.e., one that is configured to be smaller than 90°. In this connection, the deviations of the angle α from the perpendicular, i.e. from 90°, are slight and lie in the range of less than 10°, particularly in the range of less than 5°. This means that in the case of the example with the obtuse angle α, this angle is in a range from 90° to 100°, particularly 90° to 95°.

Two passage openings 4 for the two treatment legs 2 b correspond to each bristle 2. As shown in FIG. 2, passage openings 4 are connected with one another by means of crosspiece 2 a of bristle 2, on a back 3 b of belt body 3. Relative to a top 3 a of belt body 3, two treatment legs 2 b project by a predetermined dimension M, which can lie in the millimeter range, but also in the centimeter range.

It is particularly evident from FIG. 2 that passage openings 4 are disposed in rows 6 that run crosswise to the longitudinal direction of the belt. In these rows 6, passage openings 4 are disposed essentially at a uniform distance from one another, in order not to be bound to specific passage openings 4 when bristles 2 are introduced from back 3 b of belt body 3. This (uniform) distance also exists between rows 6. As a result, passage openings 4 as a whole are disposed so as to be uniformly distributed over belt body 3, but of course this is not compulsory.

Treatment legs 2 b can be disposed at a distance A from one another that is dependent on the production method and is fundamentally variable. In this connection, distance A is selected so that dirt particles and foreign bodies do not remain adhering between treatment legs 2 b during the cleaning process. This is indicated in the enlarged representation according to FIG. 1. This means that the distance A between treatment legs 2 b takes the average size of the dirt particles, foreign bodies, etc. to be loosened from a surface into account, or corresponds to this size, or is selected to be greater than this average size by a specific dimension.

Accordingly, while only a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it is obvious that many changes and modifications may be made thereunto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

1. A brush belt comprising: a belt body; and at least one bristle anchored in the belt body, said bristle having at least one sheathing of plastic and being U-shaped, with a crosspiece as a U base and two treatment legs as U shanks.
 2. A brush belt according to claim 1, wherein the treatment legs pass through passage openings in the belt body with bias.
 3. A brush belt according to claim 2, wherein there are two passage openings corresponding to each bristle, said passage openings being connected with one another on a back of the belt body by the crosspiece of the bristle.
 4. A brush belt according to claim 1, wherein said two treatment legs project by a predetermined dimension (M) relative to a top of the belt body.
 5. A brush belt according to claim 1, wherein the two treatment legs are disposed at a distance (A) from one another, which is adapted to the size of dirt particles, foreign bodies, etc. to be loosened from a surface.
 6. A brush belt according to claim 2, wherein the belt body is produced from a woven textile in which the passage openings are made in a uniform distribution.
 7. A brush belt according to claim 2, wherein the passage openings are disposed in rows that run crosswise to a longitudinal direction of the belt.
 8. A brush belt according to claim 7, wherein the passage openings within each row are disposed at equal intervals relative to one another.
 9. A brush belt according to claim 2, wherein all of the bristles are configured to be the same dimension, and the treatment legs enclose an obtuse angle α with the crosspiece in an uninstalled state, which angle deviates from perpendicular to the crosspiece, to produce the bias.
 10. A brush belt according to claim 1, wherein the bristles are injection-molded or are cut to length from a single strand and bent. 